prince or captain. They could assume any shape
they pleased. When they were male, they were called incubi; and when
female, succubi. They sometimes made themselves hideous; and at other
times they assumed shapes of such transcendent loveliness, that mortal
eyes never saw beauty to compete with theirs.

Although the devil and his legions could appear to mankind at any time, it
was generally understood that he preferred the night between Friday and
Saturday. If Satan himself appeared in human shape, he was never perfectly
and in all respects like a man. He was either too black or too white, too
large or too small, or some of his limbs were out of proportion to the
rest of his body. Most commonly his feet were deformed, and he was obliged
to curl up and conceal his tail in some part of his habiliments; for, take
what shape he would, he could not get rid of that encumbrance. He
sometimes changed himself into a tree or a river; and upon one occasion he
transformed himself into a barrister, as we learn from Wierus, book iv.
chapter 9. In the reign of Philippe le Bel, he appeared to a monk in the
shape of a dark man riding a tall black horse, then as a friar, afterwards
as an ass and finally as a coach-wheel. Instances are not rare in which
both he and his inferior demons have taken the form of handsome young men,
and, successfully concealing their tails, have married beautiful young
women, who have had children by them. Such children were easily
recognisable by their continual shrieking, by their requiring five nurses
to suckle them, and by their never growing fat.

All these demons were at the command of any individual who would give up
his immortal soul to the prince of evil for the privilege of enjoying
their services for a stated period. The wizard or witch could send them to
execute the most difficult missions: whatever the witch commanded was
performed, except it was a good action, in which case the order was
disobeyed, and evil worked upon herself instead.

At intervals, according to the pleasure of Satan, there was a general
meeting of the demons and all the witches. This meeting was called the
Sabbath, from its taking place on the Saturday, or immediately after
midnight on Fridays. These sabbaths were sometimes held for one district,
sometimes for another, and once at least every year it was held on the
Brocken, or among other high mountains, as a general sabbath of the fiends
for the whole of Christendom.

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